What Factors Affect Alabama Individual Health Insurance?
When purchasing individual health insurance, a number of factors should be considered before selecting a final policy. There is the choice between HMO and PPO type plans, the amount of out of pocket expenses (annual deductibles and co-payments), and the financial stability of the insurance company to consider. But, perhaps, the most important criterion to affect your coverage is the insurance company's practices on the medical underwriting of applicants.
The medical underwriting of individual insurance policies is dramatically different from what occurs in group health insurance programs. By law, in a group insurance plan, there can be no discrimination in coverage applied to any member of the group based on that member's individual health status. However, for individual insurance plans, discrimination based on individual health status is actively practiced today and is completely legal! If an applicant for an individual insurance policy has a disability or pre-existing condition, the insurance company is free to refuse coverage to the applicant or to offer only coverage that excludes the disability or condition.
This practice occurs as a result of the medical underwriting of a new health insurance policy which applies to most new policies purchased in the open marketplace. What medical underwriting really means is that the insurance company is evaluating the potential financial risk under the new policy based on the health status of the applicant. Before applying for a new insurance policy, consumers should always talk to the medical underwriting department of the insurance company first to find out how they deal with various medical issues.